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Now it’s OK to be a scarlet woman again

Anna Murphy

September 2 2015, 1:01am, The Times

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I don’t know what it says about me that I don’t just remember my own favourite clothes from long ago, I remember other people’s. Does this make me: a) appallingly covetous?; b) perfectly suited to the job of Times fashion director?; c) both?

Take my school friend Anna’s wool jacket, which was just the right shade of red, and quite the chicest thing the 16-year-old me had ever seen. I can practically reach out and touch that jacket even today.

It looked like something you might wear to ride to hounds, though the only thing we rode at our suburban comprehensive was the top deck of the bus. (Actually Anna rode a passive-aggressive layabout of a horse called, how ironic, Star, but that doesn’t quite…